Lightning protection - International Lightning Protection Association
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The lightning strike is both one of the most fascinating and dangerous metrological phenomenon. Mankind as always been attracted to the phenomenon that they thought was a form of divine power : it is the weapon of Zeus, the king of the gods of the Olympus and it is the power of Thor. But beyond these belief lies the fear of a dangerous phenomenon that man needs to contain for its own safety. Lightning can be a major issue particularly when talking about tall buildings. That is why lightning protection is so important.

 

Lightning Protection

A lightning protection system is designed to protect a structure from damage due to lightning strikes by intercepting such strikes and safely passing their extremely high currents to ground. A lightning protection system includes a network of air terminals, bonding conductors, and ground electrodes designed to provide a low impedance path to ground for potential strikes. Different solutions are currently available to the world. ILPA strongly believes in the most simple, efficient and modern device used to protect people and buildings from lightning strikes : the Early Streamer Emission (ESE) lightning conductor.

 

Early Streamer Emission

If a lightning rod has a mechanism producing ionization near its tip, then its lightning capture area is greatly increased. At first, small quantities of radioactive isotopes were used as sources of ionization between 1930 and 1980, later replaced with various electrical and electronic devices. According to an early patent. Since most lightning protectors’ ground potentials are elevated, the path distance from the source to the elevated ground point will be shorter, creating a stronger field (measured in volts per unit distance) and that structure will be more prone to ionization and breakdown. You can find out more about the specifications of various ESE in our technical papers section.

Today, ESEs are widely used in different parts of the globe (see map below). In 1986, which is the first year of available statistics, number of ESE was 4 088 when in 1996 it was already a cumulated number of 112 412 units. It reached the million mark (1,00,350 exactly for European manufacturers) in 2023! The last 35 years have shown that ESE air-terminals are efficient and that the ESE solution is a reliable solution for lightning protection.

Statistics

2000000000

Average lightning events detected around the world

1002350

Cumulated Early Streamer Emission lightning rods installed worldwide

ESE total 2023
Source

Numbers of ESEs installed worldwide based on manufacturing in France and in Spain shown above has been evaluated according to official statistics. This number is of course less than the overall number of ESE installed as some manufacturers production are not included.

In 1986, which is the first year of available statistics, number of ESE was 4 088 when in 1996 it was already a cumulated number of 112 412 units. In 2006 the cumulated number of installed units is 393. 000. In 2023, the cumulated installed units reached more than 1,000.000. Total number of ESE units per years (accumulated experience : number of rods x number of years of installation) is now more than 155.000.000. This impressive data illustrates the huge experience accumulated by the technology on the field, in real lightning conditions.

Standards

An increasing number of countries have released ESE – dedicated lightning protection standard. It aims at providing the users, installers and designers proper guidelines for the design and installation of Early Streamer Emission lightning rods. It also includes appendix related to the selection of the rods with required performances and reliability test procedures.

France

NF C 17 102 Protection contre la foudre – Systèmes de protection contre la foudre à dispositif d’amorçage

 

Spain

UNE 21 186 Protección  contra  el  rayo:  Pararrayos  con  dispositivo  de Cebado

 

Portugal

NP4426 Sistemas de Proteção contra Descargas Atmosféricas – Sistemas com dispositivo de inozação não radioactivo

 

Turkey

TS13709 Aktif Paratonerler

 

Kazakhstan

GOST 34 696 Early streamer emission lightning protection systems. Technical requirements and test methods

 

Uzbekistan

GOST 34696 Early streamer emission lightning protection systems. Technical requirements and test methods

Romania

I7 Este normativ pentru proiectarea, executia si exploatarea instalatiilor electrice aferente cladirilor

 

Morocco

NM 06.1.050 Protection against lightning: Early streamer emission lightning protection systems.

 

Angola

33 – 2014: Norma Angolana sobre proteção contra descargas atmosféricas

 

Argentina

IRAM 2426 Pararrayos con dispositivos de cebadopara la protección de estructuras y deedificios

 

Armenia

GOST 34696 Early streamer emission lightning protection systems. Technical requirements and test methods

 

Kyrgyzstan

GOST 34696 Early streamer emission lightning protection systems. Technical requirements and test methods